Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Striving
for excellence rather than perfection

As professionals or students, we are
continually challenged to improve our performance by striving for excellence
within our roles. However, the desire for excellence is not the same as being a
perfectionist.

Individuals who strive for perfection
are blind from the truth of excellence. Striving for excellence motivates us,
whereas striving for perfection demoralises us. Essentially, perfectionists
have standards that are unreasonable or beyond reach, and can lead to the
following negative outcomes.

Procrastination, an avoidance tactic, occurs when
individual’s fear not being able to live up to their own, or others,
unrealistically high expectations.

Fear of
Failurecan
result in apathy. This occurs when the person knows he or she will never
measure up 100% of the time.

Paralysed
Perfectionistsare so afraid of messing up that they refrain from taking
chances or making decisions until the perfect option is made available to them.

The
workaholic Syndromeleads to trouble with delegation because no one can
achieve their high expectations.

They also have trouble saying no,
thus over-committing themselves and losing their life balance, and health and
wellbeing.

Perfectionism can lead to depression,
anger, social and performance anxiety, worry, obsessive-compulsive behaviour,
and eating disorders. This is because perfectionists have unrealistic standards
with work, relationships, and other activities. The following strategies may
help reduce perfectionism.

Be less detail orientated. Sometimes near enough is good
enough.

Be less concerned about being judged by others. Have faith
in your own knowledge and expertise.

Become more tolerant of self and other’s imperfections.
Sometimes your way is simply different not better.

Accept yourself as an imperfect creature with faults and
limitations.

Whilst it is desirable to be approved by others, we don’t
need it to survive. It is better to concentrate on self-acceptance and
unconditional positive regard of self and others.